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Sunday, 3 November 2013

Knitting, Stitching, Buying........ Indulging!

How come nobody told me about the Knitting and Stitching show before? I mean, I've been through my fair share of hobbies........ I've made and sold jewellery for a few years, I made cards and bought everything in from abroad except for the few bits I could get locally, I dabbled in glass painting and sold a set of 8 Mickey Mouse drinking glasses to the current President of Ireland and had to make do with the most basic supplies from Easons! Nobody told me that just two hours up the road, there was a major all-under-one-roof craft fest going on once a year!!! I've been missing out BIG TIME! The husband has been warned, he's to save his pennies for me if he wants to save the credit card from a bashing next year and beyond!

Impossible to show just how many stands there were........ this was when things had quietened down later in the day.

It was my first time driving in the "bit city", sad I know but my other half has always done the driving when we are away. I wasn't worried though, I had my trusty side-kick (sister-in-law, Amelia) in the passenger seat listening to the SatNav which was desperately try to speak Irish and translating for me (it took us until the journey home to figure out "odee's" was poor Mrs. SatNav trying to say ó dheas). We danced in the car when we got the exits right and rang the husbands to gloat when we got to the RDS exactly on schedule! We did a super-happy-excited-dance when we got in the front door and were greeted by a chocolate stand to the right, a wool stand in front of that and it was facing a card stand, backed by fabric, fabric and more fabric! Hoooooooooray, we were home! Queue hours of browsing, buying, dropping bits off to the car, more browsing, a bit of haggling (the ol' sister in law is great for bagging a bargain), short lunch break and back to it. We stayed until 30 mins after it officially closed.

It was lovely to see in reality the shops I've only ever seen online, even better to meet the owners. I'm totally swayed by friendly shop people and have no hesitation walking away if I don't get a nice vibe from the shop assistant, no matter how much I want something. There were some English sellers with large stalls and a good variety of stock but it was brilliant to see how many Irish sellers there were and they were just as competitive...........nice to see that we can find what we need at home now! These were some of my favourites - we were greeted with the biggest smiles from the friendliest shop keepers and got some great goodies!!

I of the Needle, Athy

The Quilt Shop, Tuam (My sister won one a ticket in her FB Comp and gave it to me so I was delighted to be able to use it!

Fairly obvious who this is!I got some great value backing fabric here, totally delighted with it!

The Crafty FoxThis little dude gave me a right fright when I was chatting to the owner, I thought it was a little old lady hovering over my shoulder! Got some beautiful Tilda fabric here that I just can't wait to use!!

Now, I've mentioned in the past how my sister-in-law can be unintentionally funny but I thought it was hilarious when we're going round the biggest craft fair in Ireland and spending our few quid on fabric and she was worried about being too "materialistic". Materialistic? That's EXACTLY what I wanted to be while I was there! I'm giggling just thinking about it! She wasn't even trying to pun! Another of her gems was when she pointed out the "Owl-a Kiely Bags". Can you see what she saw? Let's just say........never a dull moment!

So that was our day at the Knitting and Stitching show and we're already planning next years trip! We took off through Dublin City traffic afterwards and treated ourselves to a lovely dinner before we hit our hotel and got to look through our purchases and make a fine mess of the room trying things out that probably should've stayed packed until we got home!

After a full day in Ikea the next day, I finally got home to Galway at
11pm the following night so was pretty stiff and tired but it was
totally worth it!

5 comments:

Hi Naomi, what a great round up post and great photos too. I couldn't get to take any as there were too many people jostling around. One American lady and I chatted over some Fat Quarters and she said 'we are all like cattle' and I said at least cows move in the one direction. But it was a great vibe. I agree about how wonderful it was to see so many Irish stands and so so lovely to meet the shop owners who I've been doing business with for so long. Glad you got to check out IKEA before you headed west, I'm sure there was something in your trolley from there too! Well done on the drive up too!

Thanks Geraldine! Definitely a bit like cattle at times! I thought it was the friendliest place - everyone had a similar interest and you could strike up a conversation with anyone and everyone had a purchase to show off.........kept me entertained when I was queuing for my lunch!!I spent a fortune at the show..........and even more at Ikea but for once I don't have a bit of guilt!!!

I'm totally torn though Rosy Sews........ I still haven't opened it. I really, really wanted an accuquilt Go but they weren't there...... this was a half hearted purchase even though all the reviews look great!